4.5" F8

Currently one of my only pictures of my first scope.
This is a 4.5" F8 Meade reflector. This was the first telescope that
I got. It was purchased Nov. 5, 1999.
I purchased it from Sam's Club for $199.00. It originally came with a
0.965" focuser and eyepieces. These were immediately replaces with
some Pocono Mountain 26mm and 16mm 1.25" SPs and 2x barlow.

Click for larger image.

Modifications:

The finder scope was replaced with a gun site. The gun site
has a variable magnification and can zoom any where from 3X - 9X with a
30mm objective. The gun site also has a straight through view (no inverted
image).

When I purchased the new 1.25" eyepieces I had to modify
the focuser to hold the 1.25" barrel. At the time I came up with a
make shift holder I turned on a wood lathe. I though about buying a 1.25"
focuser but never got around to it.

One nice feature of this cheep focuser is that it has a 2"
focuser tube. So with a little velcro (soft side) on the inside wall of
the draw tube this holds them nice an firm.

I found out recently that Harry Siebert from Siebert
Optics makes a 1.25" adapter for this style of focuser. If I was
to do anymore upgrades to this scope this would be one of them.

12.5" F5

This is the latest addition to the family. The 4.5"
just was not gathering enough photons.
This scope was ordered Sep. 5, 2000, and was received Mar. 26, 2001. It
was a agonizing wait but worth it.

This scope is a Discovery-Telescope 12.5" F5 PDHQ. Below are some
of the pictures of it. Click on any of the images to get a larger view.

This was the day baby came home. The moment it was available
I drove up to Consolidated's hub to pick it up. Lucky my little pickup
was able to hold everything.

Wow is all my wife kept saying. This thing is huge!

After about 1/2 hour of unpacking here was the results.
Every thing in good shape. Another 1/2 hour it took to assemble completely.
Then another 2 hours to admire :-)

Now this is a chunk of glass. The mirror itself is 2"
thick. The assembly weights 22.5 lbs.

Modifications:

Nothing serious yet. The altitude motion was
to tight for my taste. Even with soap it was still to stiff. So I moved
the existing Teflon pads down a little. They were initially stapled in,
so the new placement would use brass wood screws. The screws used were #6
3/4" long. Purchased from Builder Square.

Here is the original placement of the pads.

Here is the new placement of the pads.

I initially worked
the pads loose by grabbing them with a pair of pliers and wiggling them
loose a bit (like working a tooth lose). I then used a non serrated butter
knife as a wedge to pry the loosened pads off.

The pads after the extraction.
The staples were removed by hammering them out from behind, then using needle
nose pliers to pull the rest.

The picture at the right is the finished job with the new placement and
brass wood screws.